1. Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure generally relates to an optical navigation device and, more particularly, to a dual mode optical navigation device and a mode switching method thereof that may switch the operation mode according to different operating states.
2. Description of the Related Art
The conventional optical navigation device, such as an optical mouse, generally includes a light source, an image sensor and a process unit. When a user operates the optical mouse on a working surface, the light source illuminates the working surface and the image sensor receives light reflected from the working surface. The process unit of the optical mouse calculates a movement value corresponding to the user's operation according to the images successively captured by the image sensor and converts the movement value to an electric signal. A host then relatively controls a cursor movement according to the electric signal.
With the popularity of gesture operations, users can perform gesture operations via a touch interface such as a touch pad or a touch screen, for example in Microsoft Windows 8, Google Android and Apple iOS. Compared with the touch interface, conventional optical mice only have limited applications due to only being able to relatively control cursor movements according to the movement value.
For increasing functions (or operating modes) of the optical mouse, a roller is generally added to the optical mouse to be operated by the user, e.g. rolling the roller to implement window scrolling or zooming in/out, or a plurality of buttons for performing relative functions are added. However, using such additional elements to improve the user experience, the optical mouse can have problems of low accuracy, poor durability (e.g. due to abrasion of the roller) and large volume (e.g. due to ergonomic design of the pressing area of the buttons).
Accordingly, the present disclosure further provides a dual mode optical navigation device and a mode switching method thereof that have a cursor control mode and a gesture operation mode simultaneously.